Scorecard

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 3rd XI v Hemel Hempstead III on Sat 31 Jul 2010 at 1:00pm
Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club Won ! by 1 wicket

Match report Heart-stopper at The Ridge as Gregg "Patience" Cruder and Tony "Suicide" Alderton see us home.

One could argue that this game was one in the first 45 overs, where sustained excellent bowling and fielding restricted the visiting Hemel side to 152, but all the drama came at the end.

Tony and Charlie started excellently, Charlie fooling the left-handed opener into leaving one that came back up the hill and into the top of his off stump. Then their top-scoring 2nd XI batsman, coming in at 3, drove well but prompted Charlie to alter his length and promptly became almost unplayable. He spooned up several chances which landed over the top of cover and the score rattled along nicely despite things remaining difficult for both batsmen.

Enter Noz, who quickly despatched the Hemel skipper, completed another 2 aggressive overs but then tweaked his quad running down the hill and had to be replaced by new boy Pavan, with Shakeel coming on for Charlie. Wickets followed, with two sharp catches in the gully taken by the hobbling Noz, first of Shak and then Pavan. The #3 eventually mis-hit one drive too many, and the way was paved for Pavan to continue to frustrate. Phil completed the best slip catch of the season, despite standing at mid-off at the time. The visiting Shiyam then made his first impact on the game, mopping up the tail in no time.

So to the TM's innings then.

It wouldn't be Totteridge Millhillians if we didn't make hard work of it. Despite feeling very confident that the job was more than half done, the procession of wickets that have typified the 3rd XI this season meant that Hemel always felt they were in with a shout. As has often been the case, we were largely reliant on our own #3, although with Hilton still absent in this case it was Gregg Cruder. A brilliantly patient innings was played in the full knowledge that the required rate (well below 3) meant that staying in was all that was required. Sadly other batsmen did not share Gregg's wisdom or technique.

He finally found support in the shape of Shiyam, who can possibly consider himself a tad unlucky when given out stumped after he and Gregg had taken the team to within 30 runs of the target. It remains an invaluable innings, although with further wickets tumbling and Tony striding out at #11, with 20-odd still required, nerves were jangling.

Heart In Mouth #1

Gregg finally showed a momentary laspe of concentration, spooning a high drive down the hill. With breath being held all along the top side of the ground, the gallopping fielder not only managed to spill the catch, but also conspired to push the ball past his colleague who had run in from the boundary. 4 runs. Phew.

Heart In Mouth #2

With 15 runs to get, Tony 'Suicide' Alderton had become determined that the route to victory was to Get Gregg On Strike At All Costs. The 'at all costs' part nearly meant losing the game. Twice. The first time, at the start of an over, he called Gregg through for the most ludicrous of ludicrous singles (we thought at the time), only for the bowler to fail to field the keeper's throw at the non-strikers end.

Heart In Mouth #3

Finally, with 8 runs in the balance (and, it must be said, after some excellent running by Tony), he adjudged Gregg's superb straight drive to be worthy of a single off the last ball of the over. Sadly he had not accounted for the fact that the bowler, having fielded the ball as it was hit straight back at him, was standing considerably closer to the stumps that he was himself. Fortunately, neither had the bowler. An underarm throw missed by a whisker. The TM's skipper's heart came within a whisker of stopping.

Gregg eventually smote two mighty sweeps down the hill and all (on the TM's side) rejoiced.

Brilliant game, a desperately needed win and 30 invaluable points to the 3s, who now have a 21 point buffer between them and the relegation spots. It's not enough to be safe, but it's a good start.

Hemel Hempstead III Batting
152 for 10
Player name Runs
  Bowled  Low 0
  Bowled  Hussain 17
  Caught  A Book b Dusalarpardi 44
  Lbw  Dusalarpardi 9
  Caught  Hussain b Durrani 8
  Caught  Hussain b Dusalarpardi 0
  Bowled  Mohamed 17
  Caught  Ridout b Dusalarpardi 15
  Not Out  17
  Bowled  Mohamed 2
  Bowled  Mohamed 2

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 3rd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Charles Low14.0339139.002.79
Tony Alderton9.022300.002.56
Nozmul Hussain2.40818.003.00
Jeremy Book10.243147.753.00
Shakeel Durrani4.0111111.002.75
Shiyam Mohamed5.011033.332.00

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 3rd XI Batting
155 for 9
Player Name RunsCatchesStumpingsRun outs
Jeremy Book Stumped  15
Alex Book Bowled  7 1
Gregg Cruder Not Out  68
Shakeel Durrani Caught  13
Philip Ridout Bowled  7 1
Nozmul Hussain Lbw  0 2
Rob McDougall Caught  5
Shiyam Mohamed Stumped  22
Pavan Dusarlapudi Lbw  0
Charles Low Bowled  0
Tony Alderton Not Out  1

Hemel Hempstead III Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

  • Umpire :
    Bob Chandler
  • Scorer :